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I’ve been thinking a bit more about that “locust years” theme of Winston Churchill by way of Brad DeLong. That’s pretty much going to be the reality of the next 18 months, isn’t it, aside from whatever extent it can describe much of the past decade.

I don’t know about the Republicans, given that their agenda seems largely to be “make sure nothing gets done” anyway, at least when someone else is in the White House. But I imagine that Democrats hoped for something more for the years of the Obama presidency, and I’m almost sure that Obama himself did.

I mean, I think that most attempts to psychoanalyze the C-in-C get are pretty silly. But I don’t feel like you have to reach to believe that Obama really wanted to do more as President than the Affordable Care Act. But that took a loooong time, meanwhile there were various crises to deal with, and then suddenly the midterm elections were approaching and while I wish Obama had proposed a bit more, it still would have met with slim odds of congressional support leading up to last November and, obviously, would have met with a brick wall of GOP opposition since. (The idea that some indefinable “leadership” could/should have allowed someone to change these dynamics strikes me as, largely, an example of childish just-wave-a-magic-wand punditry.)

And at this point, it seems pretty certain to remain that way until the next congress gets into office, at the earliest. I guess we can look back a year to the many people arguing for the blessings of divided government, and conclude that they were, um, imbeciles, now. Officially.

NPR’s Frank James (who, despite a vast capacity for being a bloviating poltroon, occasionally says something thoughtful or at least interesting) suggests that Obama may spend the next year peppering congress with ambitious proposals in order to highlight GOP obstinacy and pull off a Truman-esque win in 2012. But, obviously, law of low expectations applies not only because Obama may not actually make such a dramatic change in strategy but, also, because even if he does and regardless of whether it works, it still wouldn’t disturb the assumption that America’s federal national government will be frozen for the next year and a half, barring another acute catastrophe.

So it goes. If there’s any bright side to this, I suppose it may be that I am spared any feeling of obligation to compose another futile effort at swaying my congressional representatives on this or that major issue. If congress is effectively going to be taking a holiday, and not even bothering to seriously consider any major legislation, well, screw it, I think. As noted, my writing to congressmen is obviously a primarily symbolic effort at all times, anyway. But if congress will be unwilling (or, thanks to the unwillingness of a large enough portion of its members, unable) to even pretend to be interested in productive reforms, well, I probably won’t bother pretending to believe that they give a damn about my input.

As long as I’m asking rhetorical questions and making futile pleas, I’d like to add one more. Please stop doing shit like this:

Jeff Darcy phones it in (like much of the media)

Seriously, I know it’s hopeless to call for anything else but that doesn’t change the fact that this is fucking bullshit.

“Congress” is not the cause of America’s debt-ceiling time bomb. Republicans in Congress are.

In its official editorial on debt politics, The Economist does everything it can to pick at Democrats on this issue, and then having made those token efforts acknowledges that “…Mr Obama and his party seem a model of fiscal statesmanship compared with their Republican opponents.” Their generally conservative-leaning Lexington columnist goes further, calling this whole farce

a problem entirely of the Republicans’ own making. The reason for this crisis is that instead of just raising the debt ceiling in the customary way so that the government can pay the bills Congress has already run up, the Republicans decided to point a pistol at the American economy and threaten to pull the trigger if they did not get the spending cuts they wanted.

Seriously, what the fuck are the Democrats supposed to do, here? (more…)

Evidence continues to mount that post-census redistricting will not be the armageddon which some of us thought it would be, for all that the new map still looks discouraging.

God fucking dammit, is it or is it not about high time someone fucking messed with Texas already?

So, that’s something of a relief. Of course, redistricting is still a complicated mess, and even long-serving, historically “safe” members of congress can find themselves no longer to voters’ tastes after things shake out; just ask Jim Leach.

My own congressman, the unashamedly-liberal Dennis Kucinich, has apparently given thought to this situation and decided to explore “taking his talents” elsewhere, much like another controversial Clevelander who bailed out on the Forest City and, though much-criticised for the move, now seems to be thriving.

Thus far, though, Dennis seems to be meeting with much less enthusiasm from prospective new “fanbases” than LeBron James did. (more…)